{"id":365115,"date":"2026-06-18T02:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T02:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/365115\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T02:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T02:17:08","slug":"mexico-is-playing-south-korea-in-the-world-cup-this-week-and-l-a-s-watch-parties-feels-like-must-attend-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/365115\/","title":{"rendered":"Mexico is playing South Korea in the World Cup this week, and L.A.\u2019s watch parties feels like must-attend events"},"content":{"rendered":"

You don\u2019t have to score a ticket inside SoFi Stadium to soak up the electric atmosphere<\/a> of the FIFA World Cup<\/a>: Thanks to watch parties all over Los Angeles<\/a>, the celebratory soccer vibes have spread to landmarks, parks and city streets, often for free.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s one particular match on the horizon that\u2019s remarkably reflective of L.A.\u2019s deeply intertwined multicultural roots and\u2014as KCRW took the words right out of our mouth\u2014\u201cthe most L.A. World Cup game ever<\/a>.\u201d On Thursday, June 18, Mexico will face South Korea at 6pm Pacific time, and while the group stage match takes place in Mexico, the watch parties in L.A.\u2014two in particular\u2014are bound to be absolutely magnetic. The two countries\u2019 camaraderie<\/a>\u00a0has captivated social media, and it\u2019ll likely be\u00a0the event to watch in L.A. on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

RECOMMENDED:\u00a020 ways to watch the World Cup in Los Angeles<\/a><\/p>\n

First up is\u00a0a watch party in Koreatown<\/a>, a neighborhood that\u2019s the capital of Korean culture and cuisine in L.A.,\u00a0as well as a majority Latino one\u2014and really, what could be more L.A. than the fact that K-town\u2019s main watch party this week takes place across from the city\u2019s most famous Oaxacan restaurant,\u00a0Guelaguetza<\/a>? But judging by the\u00a0jerseys at last week\u2019s watch party along Wilshire Boulevard, this is very much a rally for team South Korea supporters.<\/p>\n

This time around, the Los Angeles Korean Festival Foundation will hold the festivities<\/a> slightly farther south at Seoul International Park (965 S Normandie Ave). Since parking is limited in the area and it\u2019s a bit of a hike to the nearest Metro<\/a> stop, you can opt for pre-paying for parking closer to Wilshire and taking a shuttle to the event. The festival grounds, full of food and snack booths and local vendors, will open at 10am and close at 10pm; once the match starts at 6pm, you\u2019ll find the action on a screen set up on Irolo Street.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes is doubling as\u00a0Mexico\u2019s official cultural hub during the tournament, but since their watch party is sold out<\/a>, the momentum for team Mexico seems to be coalescing around Boyle Heights. The neighborhood\u2019s chamber of commerce is hosting a watch party<\/a> along 1st Street at Vicente Fern\u00e1ndez Street with live music, local organizations and the participation of the many restaurants along this block of Boyle Heights. The festivities kick off at 4pm and run until 10pm; given that it\u2019s all\u00a0right next to a Metro stop, you\u2019ll want to take the E Line to Mariachi Plaza instead of wasting your time searching for street parking.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You don\u2019t have to score a ticket inside SoFi Stadium to soak up the electric atmosphere of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[121347,48,52,51,47,50,49,121348,121346],"class_list":["post-365115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-categories-sports-and-fitness","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-news-sports-fitness","tag-sports-and-fitness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}